


The Unceasing Sky

by esteefee



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Backstory, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-19
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2018-01-09 05:37:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1142096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esteefee/pseuds/esteefee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John always has one foot out the door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Unceasing Sky

_"So long, Rodney."_

:::

John turns crisply and walks out of the infirmary, the afterimage of Everett's aged face hanging in front of him so he almost walks right into a support wall and has to put a hand out, cool Atlantis metal sliding under his palm, orienting him. He straightens and strides down the corridor and back into the fight.

:::

John remembers when he was young his father coming in and finding him beside his mother, the two of them poring over a military aircraft recognition guide. 

"Thick as thieves," his father said then, and would say over and over. John's hair was dark, like his mom's, not light like Dave's and his father's, and over the years a cast of bitterness would fall over the words.

_Thick as thieves._

"Where are you going?" His father would say, and John's mom would laugh breathlessly, a filmy yellow scarf already tied around her dark hair. She looked like one of the ladies in the model magazines she kept stacked by the sofa.

"You know where I'm going, lover."

"I told you I don't want you going there. I'm your husband. The other wives don't flitter about—"

"Oh, Patrick..." She laughed again. His mother always had a funny laugh, and it made John smile. Except John's father looked like thunder when she slipped out the door.

One night she went away and didn't come back.

John missed her like anything, but he was a tiny bit happy for her, too.

:::

The first time John kisses Rodney he does it fully aware of what a fucked up thing it is to do. He knows it's against regs for more than one reason. He knows if they get caught he'll be cashiered straight back to Earth.

John kisses him anyway, because he's always wanted to. Rodney goes dead still, like he never does—still like listening for death, for danger—and John pulls back to see shocked wide blue eyes and twisted pink lips.

Not what John was expecting, to say the least, and he gives Rodney a nod, nudges his shoulder trying to bring him out of it.

"Hey, never mind," John says. "It's okay. Sorry—" Except Rodney shakes himself and starts stuttering—

"I-I—y-you—"

"Yeah, but it was a mistake, all right? Forget about it. Not the end of the world, right?" Hell, it isn't even a tiny bit close. John knows, because they've been a lot closer to dead, he and Rodney. They've been right up to the edge and almost over as recently as hours ago. And John smiles his mother's smile, devil-may-care, ready to slip out the door at the first hint of disapproving gray.

He is his mother's son.

He backs away, hands up, and hears her sigh as she points at an F-15 Eagle. _"That one, babe. I bet it goes really fast and flies so high."_ John's already thinking about blue skies as he turns toward the door.

"Wait! Wait just a god damned minute, Sheppard! Did I say you could stop kissing me? Did you hear me say those words?"

John slows, his hand near the crystal. He turns back.

"Be-because that would be the seriously tragic mistake, to my mind." Rodney approaches him and grabs out with both hands, twisting the front of John's BDU shirt in his fists. "Seeing as I've been waiting a ridiculously long time to get you here." 

John stares at the tilt of Rodney's chin and then gazes beyond him out the window.

"You are here, aren't you?" Rodney says. He gives John a shake. "You weren't having me on?"

John looks at Rodney's face. "No. Don't be an ass." And he kisses Rodney again, because he wants to, and this time Rodney kisses him back, pushy and just a little bit too eager, and John realizes he knew all along this was the right place.

It was there the whole time in the unceasing sky of Rodney's eyes.

 

_End._

**Author's Note:**

> I actually have _The Observer's Book of Aircraft_ published in 1969, but the coolest USAF jet in it is the Phantom and I think the [F-15 Eagle](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=pi&q=F-15%20Eagle) is a sleeker jet, more John's style. Only it was built too late.


End file.
